Help Urgent New GP's and Sick Notes

[coolgeo5]

Hi Guys,

 

I think you are truely blessed if you have a good GP and don't ever move from the practice because the difference it can make to your life is unbelievable if you end up with GP's like mine they are so snooty and look down on you if you want a sick note you would think they were actually paying you out of their own pocket with the attitude they have and that's another thing they can give you a sick note for more than a month especially as your condition is never going to improve but no they would rather just do it for a month at a time to keep you on your toes and see you squirm.

 

My new GP has even taken to putting on my sick note "Neck Pain" when he knows fine well I have osteo arthritis of spine, I constantly get pain in my neck, shoulders and upper back but I also constantly get pain right across my lower back bottom of my spine and hip area so to say on my sick note neck pain is absurd when I have already had confirmed by the hospital and x-rays that I have osteo arthritis of the spine and all other GP's have put on my sick note OA of Spine it seems as if my new GP is trying to play it down to me while telling me I need to get back to work wether I work or not is really none of his business he should just be interested in my health and well being.

 

I have no plans to claim disability or anything like that as I am probably not ill enough for that I am happy just to be receiving EASA does anyone know how long I have to keep putting sick notes in for as before I believe that if you put sick notes in for over 6 months you then went on to incapacity but now the incapacity is done away with

so is there a time period where I would no longer be required to put sick notes in as this is about 6/7 months now and I would love not to have to go near the GP again to ask for sick notes and just go for my medication.

[RaeUK]

You may not like the answer to that question, coolgeo. I've been on ESA assessment rate and submitting (un)fit notes for about three and a half years now. Luckily they're for three months at a time! I hope that I'm the exception though. See why I cherish my GP?

Once you pass your ATOSH 'medical' and get placed in either WRAG or Support, then you no longer need to send (un)fit notes. Normally this should be about 4 months or so but is now much much longer due mainly to all the IB coming across. I've waited 7 months on this claim (third consecutive claim) and not even seen an ESA50 yet! If you fail and appeal then that's up to another year of sending in the notes...

[coolgeo5]

Hi RaeUK,

thanks for the advice as I really don't know much about how this all works as I have mostly worked all my life apart from the last 6/7 months I have been ill.

Guess what I got through the post today......... a letter from ATOS titled Limited Capability For Work Questionaire !!!!!

so I now have to fill in this questionaire with lots of silly trick questions then no doubt I will get sent to go for an assessment with a decision maker from the job center according to the letter to make sure I am getting the right amount of benefit .......yeah right to see if they can force you back to work is the correct answer.

RaeUK what does Wrag or Support mean as I have heard other people mention this but don't know what it actually means getting scared now.

[RaeUK]

You have a questionairre already? Such preferential treatment!

WRAG = Work Related Activity Group. This is where they want to put as many people who are found to have a limited work capability as possible. Usually, they have decided you will be fit for work in 3 months, 6 months, whatever. And will have another Work Capability Assesment accordingly.

The Support Group is where it has been determined you will never be fit for work and are finally left in peace to get on with being ill.

There are other little bits and pieces involved but I think that is a fair summary...

[coolgeo5]

Cheers for the info Rae so I preferably need to aim to be in the Support Group although knowing my luck they will put me in WRAG and try to force me back to work

although as I said before if you let a future employer know when you go for an interview that you have a few conditions and are likely to be having a lot of time off due to illness then they will give the job to someone else lol.

[Nystagmite]

WRAG is about getting you ready for work. (work experience, CV, courses, etc) They won't force you into work. They may suggest that you look at the type of work you want to do.

[coolgeo5]

WHAT A FARCE,

I made an appointment with my doctors surgery as my sick note was due, I really dread when it's time to renew my sick note wondering what crap the doctor will spout to avoid giving me one.

 

 

this time I got a doctor I have never seen before in my life I got all my usual prescriptions for pills and a referal to hospital for my hearing aid.

 

 

I then told him I need a new sick note he asked how long I had been on the sick I said since Dec 11 so roughly 7 months he then came out with........ ohhh I don't think I can give you a sick note, we are not really supposed to give sick notes after 6 months, I don't really know the legalities of it.

 

I said I am sick so therefore you should give me a sick note, if I was not sick I would be signing on at the jobcentre and be receiving JSA but in order to do that I need to be fit for work I am clearly not so that is why I send sick notes in to the DWP and receive my ESA if you do not give me a sick note I get no money so where does that leave me,

 

 

so after some humming + hawing he wrote out the sick note for another month but what a joke a doctor trying to tell me he thinks it might be illegal to give me a sick note after 6 months of being on the sick and he didn't know the legalities of it well surely as a profesional man he should know.

 

 

Years ago many people just got put on incapacity after six months on the sick now they have done away with incapacity it's not my fault I still need sick notes and money to live on besides I do not believe for one minute doctors can't give you a sick note after 6 months

 

I also got a letter through this morning 5th July to go for an ATOS medical on 11th July !!!!!!!!!!

Edited July 6, 2012 by citizenB
formatted for easier reading

[Conniff]

You can't just write sick notes for life. After six months you should be assessed to see if you are still sick. But that is up to the doctor, you tell him the symptoms and he decides if you are sick after an examination.

[speedfreek]

After six months you should be assessed to see if you are still sick

 

If I remember this right last year or was it this? The law has been changed the 1st note can not be for longer than 1 month and the maximum after that is 6 months.

 

Then you have locums/temp doctors and these legally can not give a note for over a month and can only base this note on/from that single meeting with a patient.

 

They have been given rather strict rules about it all and only a resident GP (not a locum) can back date as it has to be based on a previous consultation.

 

Locums are also being placed under more and more pressure not to write them at all.

 

Most people will only find this out when it happens to them and it's beginning to happen more and more now.

 

Oh Conniff a lot of the long term sick being migrated from IB will probably not have seen a GP or needed a note for donkeys years so will be completely taken aback by this new age of doctoring.

[count orlok]

I remeber back when I first became unwell. For 6 months i got sick notes from my doctor and i got some sick pay from my employer (no SSP back then). After that i used to take the sick notes to my local social security office and they paid me.

 

Later on they brought out IB and I had to go for an all work test every few years; I have not had to send anyone a sick note since then.

 

The doctor i was with back then and when I got DLA has retired. I have never been to see my present doctor to get sick notes, even for conditions that developed since.

[RaeUK]

You can't just write sick notes for life. After six months you should be assessed to see if you are still sick. But that is up to the doctor, you tell him the symptoms and he decides if you are sick after an examination.

 

I guess it must depend on the illness. Because I seem stuck on the ESA merry-go-round, I've had sick notes continually now for just over three and a half years. I do see my GP fairly regularly for various things anyway and at least once every three months. Assessment wise, it's just a spirometry every year to see how much deterioration there's been...

[coolgeo5]

Thanks for the feedback guys I appreciate it, since I have arthritis my condition will only get worse it won't get better, I have only been on the sick for 7 months now and each sick note has been for a month at a time but the doctors are terrible when it comes to giving them out now, I only receive ESA nothing else I am not on DLA or anything.

I dread when my sick note is up and I need to get a new one,

for that doctor to say that they can't give sick notes out after 6 months is rubbish at the end of the day it is not my fault I am unwell,

I can't go sign on for JSA, I can't apply for incapacity benefit as it no longer exists, I am probably not ill enough for DLA so I need my sick note for my ESA and as you said RaeUK you have been getting sick notes for over three years.

 

Well as I said yesterday 5th July I received a letter to go for my ATOS medical on the 11th July ( not much notice eh) so no doubt they will say I have to go sign on for JSA well looking forward to that farce will let you know how it all pans out.

[Nystagmite]

In order to get DLA, you need to have care and /or mobility needs. Do you have those type of needs?

[shamrockglen2000]

i was placed in support group without a medical for 18 months,when 18 months are up i will have to fill form in again and wait to see which group i will be put in or have to go for medical so you are not left in piece,i could go for medical and atos could say im fit for work

Edited July 6, 2012 by shamrockglen2000
mistake

[hensteeth]

 

I said I am sick so therefore you should give me a sick note, if I was not sick I would be signing on at the jobcentre and be receiving JSA but in order to do that I need to be fit for work I am clearly not so that is why I send sick notes in to the DWP and receive my ESA if you do not give me a sick note I get no money so where does that leave me,

 

 

 

Personally I have never had a problem with my GP issuing sick notes. With what is wrong with me, their general comment is " there is no point in me asking how you are - how long do you need one for"

 

 

As for I said I am sick so therefore you should give me a sick note, maybe you have forgotten who the doctor is and why they are there?

 

It is for the GP and the GP only to decide first of all if you are too sick to work or could work given a few changes and secondly for them to describe what are the functional effects of your condition and thirdly for them to decide if you will or will not be entitled to another certificate at the expiry of this sick note.

 

Clearly some patients seem to think that they are better placed to quantify these facts than the prescribing GP is.

Why not then just have stocks of MED3 forms at the Post Office for the patient to fill in themselves.

[Nystagmite]

 

Clearly some patients seem to think that they are better placed to quantify these facts than the prescribing GP is.

Why not then just have stocks of MED3 forms at the Post Office for the patient to fill in themselves.

 

But the disabled person is the one who has to live like this. I've been told that I have a problem with my ears and was fobbed off by a GP as "it should settle down". That was April. It hasn't settled down at all.

[hensteeth]

But the disabled person is the one who has to live like this. I've been told that I have a problem with my ears and was fobbed off by a GP as "it should settle down". That was April. It hasn't settled down at all.

 

GP's aren't perfect all of the time, they are human like the rest of us and make mistakes.

But they are the ones that have had the training and hold the knowledge.

 

I could very well tell you that I spent 2 years complaining about right leg pain to be told numerous times that it is probably Arthritis given my age.

Eventually I ended up in A&E in the early hours only to be told that the pain was being caused by the lack of a blood supply to the leg. They warned that I may lose the leg altogether.

 

Did I blame my GP? No, because the symptoms were very similar to a musculoskeletal condition that I also suffer from.

 

The point being, as I have said, they are not perfect, but they are the best that we have. So when a GP considers a request for a MED3 he/she must take into account a lot more things nowadays than they used to have to do pre 2008.

[RaeUK]

Indeed, hensteeth, the GP's are only human and - as you rightly point out - can vary in knowledge ...

[Slatted]

But I do wonder, having read many such threads about worries about seeing and approaching GPs for help whether they also have degrees of courage as some GPs are prepared to stick by their principles and treat the person and their condition(s) and provide sick notes if they believe them necessary regardless of how long the illness has been going on...or whether they have not passed WCA or whatever....six weeks, six months or six years ongoing...

 

Illness does not respect timescales laid down by medical professionals in my experience..and we are often told we are individuals and therefore what is a simple matter in one may not be in another......and it certainly does not obey the Govt guidelines as to how fit we are to perform work related tasks....

[worried33]

In order to get DLA, you need to have care and /or mobility needs. Do you have those type of needs?

 

I keep hearing this mobility needs, but the assessment for mobility DLA on paper seems to be on capability.

 

What does seem to happen tho, based on my experience is if someone immobile tries to claim DLA but is getting no assistance for the problem such as no wheelchair, no aids in house etc. they are treated as no needs and as such assumed can walk then rejected.

[worried33]

I'm not so sure about GP's having incentives to write fewer (un)fit notes or being castigated for writing too many. There just seems to be a woeful disparity over standards of care. If a GP behaved in my Practice the way coolgeo5's does, he/she would be out on their ear. They would not be tolerated by the other GP's or Medical Staff. I really didn't appreciate how good mine were until I started reading some of the GP complaints on CAG! ...

 

I think my other thread which I updated the other day got moved.

 

But basically I complained to the PCT (which under tory plans will be scrapped, so that avenue wont eb available soon) and as a result I am now at my head GPs other surgery which only has permenant staff no locums and I seen the same GP that I had sene previously who had reffered me to a work programme, the same GP had a complete attitude shift, gave me a 40min examination which turns out I have some potentially previously undiagnosed serious problems and I am of for a scan at the hospital next week. Also taken my existing problems more seriously and this time gave me a sick note without moaning and I didnt even ask for the sick note.

[Nystagmite]

I keep hearing this mobility needs, but the assessment for mobility DLA on paper seems to be on capability.

 

What does seem to happen tho, based on my experience is if someone immobile tries to claim DLA but is getting no assistance for the problem such as no wheelchair, no aids in house etc. they are treated as no needs and as such assumed can walk then rejected.

 

Even with evidence from the GP that they can't walk?

[RaeUK]

Not too sure what you mean, worried, by 'the assessment for mobility DLA on paper seems to be on capability'. As for the second part of your post, I'll have to let you know! ...

[worried33]

Even with evidence from the GP that they can't walk?

 

and a specialist.

 

But I have no existing aids other than crutches, I have more aids now given to me by the podiatry service but this is after my last DLA medical which I didnt have at the time. I have appealed so will see what the trubunal consider when that comes up.

[worried33]

Not too sure what you mean, worried, by 'the assessment for mobility DLA on paper seems to be on capability'. As for the second part of your post, I'll have to let you know! ...

 

On paper I mean by the reasons they given for rejection, it was a simple "can walk 200 meteres unaided and without discomfort". Nothing about needs.